The invention relates to a process for preparing blanks for sabot bodies and the sabot arrangement obtained thereby.
A sabot arrangement of the afore-described type is generally manufactured as folows:
A first rotational symmetrical body, having the contour of the sabot, is severed by means of longitudinal axial cuts into the segments in such a way that the material loss due to a corresponding arrangement of the severing cuts is taken into consideration. Thus, with cutting into three parts, a first divided portion forms with one or more segments of a second divided portion, a rotational symmetrical sabot body, to form jointly one sabot arrangement. To achieve this result, the contacting surfaces of the segments must be precisely finished and must have smooth surface characteristics. These segments are arranged about the projectile and are maintained thereabout by means of a foreign element, for example a guide band or sealing element having fracture zones, which maintain the segments in assembly until its disintegration upon leaving the muzzle of the gun barrel. Generally the projectile, as well as the segments, in their mutual contacting regions, are provided with corresponding interacting form-locking means.
The known process for manufacturing a segmented sabot is disadvantageously complex and cost intensive relative to the prospective material consumption as well as the required working. Additionally, each segment must be separately marked in accordance with its corresponding disposition on the preselected sabot arrangement. This is necessary in order to eliminate as much as possible a mistake due to an unintended interchange of the segments.
Exemplary of the state of the art are U.S. Pat. No. 3,262,391, Luxembourg published patent application Ser. No. 57539, and British Pat. No. 20 27 855. The sabot arrangement of U.S. Pat. No. 3,262,391 includes a plurality of metal discards which have radially outwardly increasing wall thicknesses. These same metal discards have a toothed inner contour and an even outer periphery. The segments contact the sub-caliber projectile approximately at its middle region, which sub-caliber projectile has a toothed outer peripheral surface in that region which matingly engages the toothed inner peripheral surface of the metal to form a form-locking connection. The rear surface of the sabot is provided with sealing means. The sub-caliber projectile is formed as an arrow-stabilized high-altitude probe and is fired out of a gun barrel having an elevation of about 90 degrees. The sabot of U.S. Pat. No. 3,262,391 is designed to mitigate a particular dangerous condition. When a sabot is formed by only three or four segments each one of them may represent a dangerous condition at separation from the projectile because of its large mass. It is for this reason that the projectile described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,262,391 has a sabot which is composed of a large number of small segments of relatively small mass. The parts that fall off the projectile do not cause the afore-described danger to the personnel servicing the weapon because of their reduced mass. This projectile has, however, a significant drawback because it is designed with segments made out of sheet metal, the thickness of which increases from the inner to the outer region. This is therefore a very complex and expensive construction.
There is disclosed in British Pat. No. 20 27 855 a process for producing a sabot out of metal and synthetic material for ammunition of a relatively small caliber rifled bore weapon. The arrow projectile of this patent has a sabot consisting of a metal alloy which is directly cast on the projectile body and a shell of a plastic material. The casting of the peripheral form-locking means onto mating means on the projectile body is carried out in such a way that the metal melt forms in a predetermined peripheral region three separate bodies which interengage with the form-locking means on the projectile body. Such an arrangement is then involved in an injection molding process step whereby a synthetic material jacket surrounds the projectile and the three metallic bodies forming the sabot so that only a nose needs to be mounted on the sabot arrangement.
While the arrow-projectile of the British Pat. No. A 2027 855 is arrow-stabilized, repeated reference is made to a rifled bore. Taking the teachings of the British patent as a whole, the routineer skilled in the art would conclude that this patent refers to a sabot that operates under spin-stabilization. Moreover, the manufacturing process of the British patent is not suitable for ammunition of large caliber gun barrels to which the instant invention relates. Even the volume of the metal melt that must be cast in the first mold requires substantial preheating steps. The manufacture is therefore complex and cost intensive even for small caliber ammunition and is therefore not suitable for large caliber ammunition for safety reasons.